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The all new test and trace system explained

Boris Johnson - Lucy Young/Evening Standard/PA
Boris Johnson - Lucy Young/Evening Standard/PA

This was first published in The Telegraph's Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanation behind the week’s biggest political stories, sign up to the Refresher here – straight to your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free.

What's the story?

Given recent reports, it’s not overly surprising that the Government decided to overhaul the test and trace system.

Not only had the system been reaching fewer than half the contacts of people testing positive, but it was claimed that some tracers were making only a handful of calls every month and spent their time playing quizzes.

Those working for the call centres, run by Serco and Sitel, claimed the job was akin to being "paid to watch Netflix".

Under the new reforms, people who fail to respond to phone calls from the NHS Test and Trace unit face being visited on their doorstep by council workers.

A third of the call centre staff are to be laid off and the rest deployed regionally to work with councils, in an acknowledgement that the system has not been fighting local outbreaks effectively.

Under the overhauled programme, council teams can track down anyone who cannot be reached by the national system after 48 hours to tell them to self-isolate.

Every council will also be told they can have "dedicated ring-fenced teams" from the national service to help with local contact tracing.

It’s a move away from the current centralised system, where call handlers aim to make contact with all infected people and those they have come into contact with, to advise them to self-isolate.

While councils have already had some notable successes with contact tracing, the proposed changes have caused alarm amongst some Tory backbenchers.

Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told The Refresher that there was something “Big Brother” about having people turn up at your door.

“I don’t like the idea of it at all,” he said.

Looking back

The NHS Test and Trace system was launched with much fanfare in May, with Boris Johnson promising it would be “world beating”.

However, the latest data paints a different picture.

Just 72 per cent of close contacts were reached by NHS call handlers in the week ending July 29 – down from 76 per cent from the week before.

Worse still, analysis shows it is reaching less than 50 per cent of the contacts of those who have had a positive test result for coronavirus.

We’re also yet to see a working Covid-19 contact-tracing app.

The initial app, trialled on the Isle of Wight, had compatibility issues with iPhones and was dropped by the Government. Officials hope to confirm the date for the second app in the coming days.

However, the test and trace chief Baroness Harding said such an app would serve as “the cherry on the cake”. The primary concerns over test and trace lie in its ability to contact people.

Anything else I need to know?

So why is test and trace failing to get in touch with people?

The Local Government Association warned that many people would not pick up the phone to 0300 numbers, owing to bad experiences with cold callers.

It is thought that the “unrecognisable” number is deterring some people from answering the phone.

Politicians have also warned that many people may decide to avoid the call when faced with the prospect of losing two weeks of work.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham called for payments “akin to jury duty” to be made to those forced to self-isolate by the system.

Mr Burnham said he was concerned some are already not handing over names of their contacts to NHS Test and Trace staff for fear of putting friends and family in a "really difficult position".

However, there is no doubt that council involvement has proved successful so far. A handful of councils in areas of high infection rates have already taken matters into their own hands.

Last week, Blackburn with Darwen followed Sandwell in sending out its own staff door to door amid frustration at failings in the national system.

Councils found that sending people out to meet contacts in person resulted in reaching 98 to 100 per cent of people who fell through the gaps.

The Refresher take

It was another botched Government coronavirus programme that required a screeching policy U-turn.

Belatedly, ministers have conceded that the virus marked by local flare-ups is best tackled at a local level.

Calls for a localised system are not new. By boosting existing public health networks, the German contact tracing system has been able to make use of local expertise and react to regional circumstances.

Indeed, local councils that had taken matters into their own hands reported a far higher rate of compliance.

It is perhaps a lesson for this overly centralised administration that sometimes it pays to relinquish control.